ASIC and the $3m 'prophet'

Former Melbourne boy Senen Pousa has been told by a court not to leave town while he is helping the corporate police with their inquiries into who owns $3.4 million in bank accounts associated with him.

Pousa lives in Byron Bay, which means that there are worse places you could be stuck in when deprived of your passport, but maybe some of the self-proclaimed financial guru's 3000 followers worldwide will be disappointed they will not be getting any face time in the near future.

The Australian Securities and Investments Commission told the Queensland Supreme Court last week that it is concerned that Pousa has been carrying on an unlicensed financial services business via his company Investment Intelligence Corporation and its web-based ProphetMax "financial mentoring" program.

Insider suspects that ASIC's concerns go a little deeper and wider than that because the regulator revealed that it is working with authorities in the US, New Zealand and the Netherlands on this one.

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ProphetMax's website is members only — but it looks like the sort of club that Insider probably would not want to join, judging by much of the internet chatter over the past six months.

Even more disappointing was that a two to three hour Q&A session with Pousa and US wealth promoter Mike Dillard and his Elevation Group, is also out of reach. Dillard earlier this year introduced Pousa to his followers as: "Lesson 19" in his series of online coaching sessions.

A "review", compiled by another promoter of Dillard, described the Pousa interview as: "Are 100% returns really possible? They are if you know this man! In this Elevation Group Review, we are introduced to Mr. X from Australia (got to keep it secret because he's very exclusive about (sic) he talks to) who is an absolute genius at exploding your wealth. In fact, if you had invested $10,000 with him 2 years ago, it would now be valued at $240,000 +."

Actually, the claim was that $10,000 had grown by 2501 per cent over 48 months, which is four years. It must have been true because a fake claim would have said "2500 per cent", and missed the fine detail.

No wonder Dillard was impressed — on his own "sign up for my webinar" pitch, he had managed just 470 per cent returns in 36 months. Pathetic.

Pousa and Dillard both pitch to potential clients about revealing to them the secrets that only the super-rich, and celebrities, have for making money even when markets go into a tailspin. The clever part of their business is they are not just trying to build a client base of traders, but an army of proselytisers who pay to re-sell their wisdom.

ASIC described Pousa's business as supposed to be about web-based learning modules that teach you financial literacy, life coaching — and currency trading.

Funny, Insider has never seen a word written or said about such a successful group — not even from MorningStar which allegedly ranked him.

Insider listened to some of Pousa's presentation on Facebook, where he referred to helping his wealthy clients trade $100 million of gold, and produced helpful advice like in life we tend to either produce the results we want, or the results we don't want. Really?

From what Insider can work out, investors had to pay $2000 to sign up for ProphetMax and "his Buddhist crap",as one unhappy customer called it. The religious aspect might explain the name of the product, but if Pousa was espousing Buddhist principles, making buckets of money seems to run against the basic tenets of that religion.

If Pousa is religious, he would seem to keep strange business company. The broker that ProphetMax clients had to deal through was a New Zealand incorporated company, IB Capital FX (NZ), which barely a week before ASIC's action against Pousa had its licence cancelled by the NZ authorities.

IB Capital says on its now inactive website that the July 17 cancellation was because it was shifting its operations and management to Europe — although Insider would have thought that would not stop you keeping your website running.

Oddly, the group is also offering a link on the only working page that allows investors to access a form to apply to withdraw their money, which they have to print and then email back. No phone numbers are offered.

IB Capital, says ASIC, told clients to send their money to an ING bank account in the Netherlands. IB Capital's last director, Emade Echadi, gave a Netherlands address. His predecessor, Joaquim Magro de Almeida, had one in Portgual.

The same people have also been directors of a string of similarly-named and behaved companies in both New Zealand and the UK.

IB Capital said that it was trading forex with a US company called Global Forex Management — although the regulator said there is no company of that name licensed in the US to trade foreign currencies.

Pousa is scheduled to re-appear in a Queensland court at a later date. Insider tried to contact him, but was unable to get an answer on the company's phones.